Professor Joe Moshenska, Beaverbrook and Bouverie Fellow and Praelector in English, was a guest on a BBC Radio 3 programme discussing the history of bedrooms and how they have shifted from spaces of rest to spaces of work. The programme forms part of a series celebrating 10 years of New Generation Thinkers, a partnership between the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to bring research to radio.

Professor Moshenska’s research is mostly located in the period between 1500 and 1700. His first book A Stain in the Blood was written to be accessible to the general reader. His second book, published in 2019, Iconoclasm as Child’s Play, examines when holy things taken from churches during the Reformation were, instead of being smashed or burned, given to children as toys. In 2017 he presented a documentary on Milton’s Paradise Lost that was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Professor Joe Moshenska

Since 2010, 100 early career researchers have become New Generation Thinkers (NGT). As part of the programme, Professor Moshenska previously recorded an essay for the BBC’s Free Thinking Festival. The essay discussed the 1667 recipe book by Sir Kenelm Digby, which featured recipes from sugared mallow-leaves that cured gonorrhoea to “pan cotto” cooked by Roman Cardinals.

The episode is now available to listen to online.

Published: 25 November 2020

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